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Monday, March 19, 2018

House Reno - Garage, Part 1

We are getting closer to finalizing all the decisions on our upcoming house renovations. Some have come sooner than we anticipated, as in the case of our garage door, which was on the list for replacement as a spring had sprung several years ago, which bent the top frame, which in turn made the top panels bend a bit. Well, a few weeks ago I happened to be outside when the door was down and noticed this:

Ack, cracks!

So that got moved up on the list and we have a new garage door on order. This one will change the look of our house - we're going with black, with a row of windows on the top panel. We've had black carriage lights on either side of the garage door, and they've been faded and have needed replacing for years, so we went ahead and got some new lights, and Jeff installed them over the weekend:

The broom is out because when Jeff took down the old light, the center part crashed to the ground and broke into many pieces. To which we both said HUH, THAT WAS ACTUALLY GLASS - it was so cheap looking that we thought it was plastic.

Light is up, but there's a slight issue - it's not lying exactly flush against the brickwork...

Close up of the bricks - they are uneven, which we like, don't get me wrong - they add texture and dimension to the house. But that presents a challenge when you're trying to make something like a light fixture lay flush against the side of the house.

We discussed a couple of options, including mounting the light on a painted piece of wood and then attaching that to the brickwork, but we still would have had the flush-mounting issues with that. Finally, we decided a bit of demolition was the best option, so Jeff drew around the circle of the mount with a pencil, then removed the fixture, grabbed a hammer and chisel, and chipped away at the bricks until the base fit flush against the wall. I have no pictures of this because I was standing there holding the still-wired-in fixture (covered with a towel for protection) above my head,getting showered with brick dust. It was quite an adventure, but guess what? It worked perfectly:

And on Saturday night, at 7:34 pm, which just so happens to be sunset, the lights came on automatically thanks to the new Wemo switch timer that Jeff also installed.

We were standing outside, watching for them to come on (and knew what time sunset was thanks to the Weather Channel app), and there was much rejoicing when it actually worked! We do not have the best of luck when it comes to making all things wifi work, at least on the first go-round, but our goal is to have most of the gadgets in our home be smart, so this was a good start. We have the lights set to turn on at sunset (and it magically knows when sunset is because Jeff entered our city into the app on his phone) and turn off at sunrise. We may get another Wemo switch for the floodlights in the front and side of our house, now that we know we can make it work, LOL.

While we wait for the new garage door to come in, Jeff cleaned out the garage. Remember when I cleaned out the cabinets in my master bathroom and found enough bottles of shampoo and conditioner that I said I won't have to buy any for the next year? Well, the same could be said for gallon jugs of vinegar...and fire ant killer...and bug spray. We don't mean to hoard, but when you don't put things in one central place, you end up buying more.

Also, The Duchess suffered an indignity during the clean out process:

WHAT. THE. HECK.

At least Jeff covered her roof with a moving blanket for protection, but I swear, being a short car means being mistaken for a shelf sometimes. Poor Duchess. She was so embarrassed. Jeff gave her a nice wash on Sunday afternoon to make up for her suffering, though.

***Disclosure: I'm testing out the Amazon Associate program, so this post contains links that might eventually put a few bucks into my bank account, maybe. More on this decision in another post.

Honestly, we're having more of the work done for us than doing it ourselves, but some stuff, we can handle, so we do. Still, I'm embarrassed that it was such a simple and relatively cheap fix to change the garage lights, especially with how bad the old ones were looking.

Well, that Jeff is handy dandy! I'd keep him around if I were you! I like the way the lights look. I bought a light that was supposed to come on when it got dark, but guess what? It doesn't come on at all. And I haven't done anything about it for a couple of years.

I am glad you were able to get the lights to lay flush after all, yay! I can't wait to see the new door! And that is really cool that the lights worked and turned on and off when you want! We have a bunch of things automated at our house, and it all seems so... magical. Technology still impresses me ;)

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